"Cinco de Mayo" - Francisco X. Alarcó

CINCO DE MAYOby Francisco X. AlarcónFirst of all, Cinco de Mayois not the officialMexican Independence Day,nor does it commemorate the firstfiesta no matter how convincingTV commercials might sound —it’s as unofficial as schoolchildren telling jokes in Spanishin English-only public schoolsCinco de Mayo is a battle foughtin the city of Puebla in 1862:an outnumbered, outgunned,ill-trained and very poorMexican army under the commandof Ignacio Zaragoza, a generalborn in San Antonio, Texas,defeated the superbly equippedprofessional French army sentby Napoleon III — Cinco de Mayobecame a rally of hope for a nationCinco de Mayo is a milagritoque nunca debió pasar pero pasó:it’s the full-blooded ZapotecIndian President Benito Juárezhumming: “Sí se puede”in his forced journeyszigzagging the Republic —Ciudad Juárez is namedafter this Mexican herowho never gave up despitefacing superior enemy forcesCinco de Mayo is primavera,the bluest of skies y se siente alegríay ya casi salimos de vacaciones.Cinco de Mayo is a crythat starts in the heart,a drum that keeps calling:Juan, María, José acuérdense —it’s Cinco de Mayo and like any other day:el Chuy sigue preso y el Joe is unemployedy Rosa is a teenagerthree months pregnant,all confused, lost at school,and without legal papersCinco de Mayo was usedonce as a legal deadlineintended to close the doorsto thousands who have cometo this country searchingfor a dream, a better deal,a chance to live: who then will be the ones to harvestthe vegetables for your salads?who will make your hotel bed?who will do the dishes and scrubthe floors in the restaurants?Cinco de Mayo is community,familia, a ritual for life,a collective kiss en la frente,a rainbow, una empanada,una canción, un baile, una miradaCinco de Mayo is now a rallyfor protecting our civil rightsagainst “reasonable suspicion”of the mean-spirited, xenephobicand racist law SB 1070 in ArizonaCinco of Mayo is a brown Davidfacing a menacing state Goliathsinging under the Arizona clouds:“sí, se puede”, “yes, we can do it…”Cinco de Mayo is a flower wateredby our people's tears of pain and joy:Cinco de Mayo is each and other day,a lesson of resistance in a era of defeatA prolific writer for adults and children, Francisco X. Alarcón (1954-2016) was born in California and grew up in Guadalajara, Mexico. Alarcón returned to the United States to attend California State University at Long Beach, and he earned his MA from Stanford University. His collections of poetry for adults include Body in Flames/Cuerpo en llamas (1990); De amor oscuro/Of Dark Love (1991); Snake Poems: An Aztec Invocation (1992), winner of the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation; From the Other Side of Night/Del otro lado de la noche: New and Selected Poems (2002); Ce Uno One: Poemas para el Nuevo Sol/Poems for the New Sun (2010); Borderless Butterflies: Earth Haikus and Other Poems/Mariposas sin fronteras: Haikus terrenales y otros poemas (2014); and Canto hondo/Deep Song (2015).